Best grocery store choice?

tuxedoontheloos · Nov 24, 2014

I got adopted by an abandoned kitty on Halloween. Tucker is a six-month old grey and white long-haired ball of fluff and mischief. And I am completely conflicted on what to feed him. I live in a small town. the nearest pet supply store is a two hour drive, which I try to avoid in the winter. This limits my food selection to the local grocery store, Walmart, and the vet's.

The choices are:

Dry:
MeowMix
Whiskas
Iams
Purina
PurinaONE
President's Choice Extra Meaty Cat Food
Actrium (Walmart brand)
Science Diet (at the vet 20-30% mark-up)
Orijin (again, at the vet, same mark-up and they only stock the seven fish variety)
And some bulk stuff from the feed store that seems to be mostly corn and chicken meal

Wet:
FancyFeast
Friskies
Whiskas moist pouches
Special Kitty (Walmart brand)
Weird no name stuff which also seems to be mostly corn and chicken meal

I've been giving him meal of PurinaONE kitten food in the morning and either FancyFeast or Friskies at night supplemented with chicken, hard-boiled egg, and the occasional sardine. Any thoughts on how to improve his diet? I can't afford to give him wet-only and lost a cat when I was growing up to an incorrectly prepared home made diet, so I'm leery of transferring him off of commercial food entirely, especially since my cooking skills just aren't that great and I'm squeamish with raw meat. But at the same time... it's kind of awful selection and I want to give him the best I can reasonably get.

(At the same time, I know that pretty much anything I give him is better than him starving and freezing to death outside, but still want him to have the best chance at life.)

chromium blues · Nov 24, 2014

Science Diet. The veterinarian may also have Medi-Cal, which is better. Iams has been recalled more times than I can count. Cats tend to get urinary tract problems on Whiskas, which also tends to make them fat. If you're going to go grocery, go Purina One. As far as the canned goes, Science Diet or Medi-Cal, Fancy Feast or Friskies.

tuxedoontheloos · Nov 24, 2014

Thanks. I wasn't touching Iams for that reason, but it's good to have it confirmed. PurinaONE or Science Diet it is for the dry.

lokhismom · Nov 24, 2014

I'd feed all wet. Its much much healthier.

Fancy Feast classic which is grain free. It has to be the cans labeled 'classic'

Friskies pate

The Walmart around me carries Sheba which is also grain free. Make sure you get the cans labeled pate. I'd see if your Walmart has it.

I think 3 different brands of wet is a good rotation for a kitty.

Good luck and thank you for rescuing the little one.

ankitty · Nov 24, 2014

Fancy feast classic. Can you buy online? 24 3oz cans for $12.48 at Amazon.

tuxedoontheloos · Nov 24, 2014

The Classic FF doesn't seem to be available, but I've been sticking with the chicken and turkey pate flavours. For Friskies I'm getting the mixed grill pate. Amazon.com won't ship to my location.

Kat0121 · Nov 24, 2014

Tuxedoontheloos said:
I got adopted by an abandoned kitty on Halloween. Tucker is a six-month old grey and white long-haired ball of fluff and mischief. And I am completely conflicted on what to feed him. I live in a small town. the nearest pet supply store is a two hour drive, which I try to avoid in the winter. This limits my food selection to the local grocery store, Walmart, and the vet's.

The choices are:

Dry:
MeowMix
Whiskas
Iams
Purina
PurinaONE
President's Choice Extra Meaty Cat Food
Actrium (Walmart brand)
Science Diet (at the vet 20-30% mark-up)
Orijin (again, at the vet, same mark-up and they only stock the seven fish variety)
And some bulk stuff from the feed store that seems to be mostly corn and chicken meal

Wet:
FancyFeast
Friskies
Whiskas moist pouches
Special Kitty (Walmart brand)
Weird no name stuff which also seems to be mostly corn and chicken meal

I've been giving him meal of PurinaONE kitten food in the morning and either FancyFeast or Friskies at night supplemented with chicken, hard-boiled egg, and the occasional sardine. Any thoughts on how to improve his diet? I can't afford to give him wet-only and lost a cat when I was growing up to an incorrectly prepared home made diet, so I'm leery of transferring him off of commercial food entirely, especially since my cooking skills just aren't that great and I'm squeamish with raw meat. But at the same time... it's kind of awful selection and I want to give him the best I can reasonably get.

(At the same time, I know that pretty much anything I give him is better than him starving and freezing to death outside, but still want him to have the best chance at life.)

Your post doesn't say where you live. If you are in the US, you can try Amazon (they have pet foods available for the subscribe & save program), chewy.com,wag.com and petfooddirect.com. Using one of these delivery services will greatly increase your food selections.

pinkdagger · Nov 24, 2014

Out of what you have available, I would choose Orijen dry and Friskies + Fancy Feast wet. If you're in Canada, it's important to note that ours don't show "Classics" on the label. The Classics line for us is just the general "Fancy Feast" unmarked pates. I try to avoid foods with corn like the plague because my experience with corn-based or corn-inclusive foods has led to giant, bulky, more frequent and smellier cat poops and more eating which is counterproductive to saving money for good food.

Since I don't live near a Petsmart anymore, which is my top choice for affordable food since Canada's online pet stores are very lacking when it comes to variety and competitive pricing, on the occasions I am able to drive by one while heading out of town, I place a pickup order. It's not very often, so I stock up and it lasts long enough, especially if I have other more readily available foods to supplement with.

tuxedoontheloos · Nov 24, 2014

pinkdagger said:
Out of what you have available, I would choose Orijen dry and Friskies + Fancy Feast wet. If you're in Canada, it's important to note that ours don't show "Classics" on the label. The Classics line for us is just the general "Fancy Feast" unmarked pates. I try to avoid foods with corn like the plague because my experience with corn-based or corn-inclusive foods has led to giant, bulky, more frequent and smellier cat poops and more eating which is counterproductive to saving money for good food.

Since I don't live near a Petsmart anymore, which is my top choice for affordable food since Canada's online pet stores are very lacking when it comes to variety and competitive pricing, on the occasions I am able to drive by one while heading out of town, I place a pickup order. It's not very often, so I stock up and it lasts long enough, especially if I have other more readily available foods to supplement with.

Knowing that about the Classics label is VERY helpful. I'd been confused about what magical grain-free Classic FF everyone on the internet was on about and assumed it just didn't exist north of the border. If the Orijen chicken was available I'd grab it without bothering anyone on here, but the fish only flavour kind of concerns me. Placing a pick-up order is a good idea though and would be a way to get something better for the dry. I think I'll do that once the roads are clear again.

pinkdagger · Nov 24, 2014

It is confusing! A LOT of people have the "Classics" line shown where they live and for a while, I was just resigned to "guess it's yet another thing they didn't want to sell to Canadians" but then I figured the normal pates were fine.. until I realized they were one at the same, being grain free! For what it's worth, even though there's rice flour in some of the grocery store brand foods, I have no problem feeding Friskies and even President's Choice wet food. If you're concerned about fish-based kibble, maybe you can make it a very small portion of his diet, and the rest can be as much non-fish wet food as you can manage to feed.

Right now Petsmart isn't shipping to online shoppers in Canada, but I have bought from Petland - though not for the cats - and had success with their online shopping: http://www.petland.ca/cat/food-center.html

They carry other varieties of Orijen. They even carry a kibble that I, to this day, cannot sing enough praises for: the Canadian company Petcurean's Go! line. I feed the Free + Fit Chicken, Turkey, and Duck recipe and the cats love it. It does contain some fish, and I would say it has quite a fishy smell, but it's a really good high protein (48%), low carb (13%) food. It's on the pricy side though at $30 for 4lbs. Their wet selection is a little lacking, but it's not a huge chain.

I've never bought from them, but there's also Ren's Pet Food Depot: http://www.renspets.com/

Their prices aren't anything to write home about, so it's just easier for me to pay the gas and go to another store than to have it shipped to me. If I didn't have any options for driving out and I wanted to buy in bulk, I might give them another look.

Willowy · Nov 25, 2014

I actually like Purina ONE Kitten dry food. It's not half bad. The adult formulas aren't as good though, so if you want to keep him on the kitten food, that's fine. If it makes him gain too much weight, just limit his intake. If they have Purina ONE Beyond, that's even better. I've heard that Actr1um is decent but I'm not familiar with the brand so I'm not sure. Of course Orijen would be great but you do need to consider your budget.

For canned food, Fancy Feast and Friskies pate flavors are fine. Even some of the Special Kitty flavors aren't too bad, but they have had a lot of recalls so not sure I trust them.

ankitty · Nov 25, 2014

Dry kibbles have too much carb.

tuxedoontheloos · Nov 25, 2014

ankitty said:
Dry kibbles have too much carb.

I know they're not the best, but feeding him can-only (Friskies too not something super premium) would be over 30 a month! I spent just under 100 feeding myself and I eat a heck of a lot more than Mr. Tucker does.

I've got a friend driving into town next week though so Ill see if they can get some wet for cheaper and maybe a big bag of not fish Orijens. Its expensive dry but with the wet in the evening I think it should last long enough to make it economical. I'll also feel alot better knowing that at least some of his food was produced locally

ankitty · Nov 25, 2014

Tuxedoontheloos said:
I know they're not the best, but feeding him can-only (Friskies too not something super premium) would be over 30 a month! I spent just under 100 feeding myself and I eat a heck of a lot more than Mr. Tucker does.

I used to think the same way as you. But after several visits to an emergency vet (and my cat loves to pick weekends and holidays for his crisis) which costed me over $1000 each, I needed to rethink. Also, many vets are eager to sell prescription diets which are like, $50 a bag or $2.50 per can, and actually Nature's Variety Instinct cans are cheaper than that. I think it's better to prevent it by feeding better food to begin with. And, there'd be no higher cost than your heartache and grief when your cat gets sick. I wish I knew better when I adopted my cats.

tuxedoontheloos · Nov 25, 2014

I'm not certain they sell Nature's Instinct even in town. I'm fairly certain the only reason Orijens is availlable is because its produced in-province. I'm a bit in the middle of nowhere.

Until I win the lottery or get a raise or move somewhere that doesn't have stupidly high food prices he'll have to make due with a mixed diet. It works out to about 40% dry to 60% wet and the dry is mostly out of a foraging toy I made out of an old jar so he'd leave me alone at breakfast. It gives him something to do while im at work too I think

To Willowy, that's good to know about the kitten food. I choose it bc it had the highest protein count of what was availlable when I first got him. For some reason I didnt think that you could feed an adult cat kitten food but theres no real why not especially if its making up less than half his diet. Its also good bc its easy to grab more if run out and the roads are blocked

To pinkdagger, i will defintely look into the pc wet food. I didnt see it last time i was shopping but if its good then i know what ill be cashing my pc points out on

ankitty · Nov 25, 2014

I brought up Nature's Variety just because it's one of the most expensive canned foods and even that is cheaper than Hill's Prescription Diet...just to say how expensive prescription foods can be.

zoneout · Nov 25, 2014

Have you ever looked at the ingredients on Hills? Expensive definitely does not equate to quality food.

ankitty · Nov 25, 2014

zoneout said:
Have you ever looked at the ingredients on Hills? Expensive definitely does not equate to quality food.

I know. I was horrified by the ingredients. So many by-products and... cellulose???

zoneout · Nov 25, 2014

cellulose = cheapest filler

Willowy · Nov 26, 2014

Yeah, Hills' food is not great, ingredient-wise, especially considering the price :/. But they do a lot of research, have good quality control, and have had very few recalls. So if I weren't able to get something better from a respectable company, I would feel comfortable enough using Hills. But not if I had a better option.

Best grocery store choice?

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